Variant Bio Expands Target Discovery Collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim into Cardiovascular Disease

• Expanded, multi-year collaboration applies Variant Bio's AI-powered Inference platform to cardiovascular target discovery
• Variant Bio is eligible for additional upfront, platform access and milestone payments for a total deal value potentially exceeding $250 million

SEATTLE, Sept. 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Variant Bio, a genomics-driven AI drug discovery company, today announced an expansion of its multi-year research collaboration and license agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim. Building on the companies' work in kidney disease, the collaboration will apply Variant Bio's Inference platform to discover and validate novel targets for cardiovascular disease. The AI-powered platform conducts end-to-end genomic analysis using proprietary genomic, deep-phenotyping, and multi-omic data from studies involving diverse populations worldwide.

Cardiovascular and kidney disease are closely interconnected and collectively represent one of the world's greatest health challenges. The expanded collaboration combines Variant Bio's platform and data-driven discovery capabilities with Boehringer Ingelheim's long-standing scientific expertise in these disease areas to identify potential new treatments for people living with cardiovascular disease.

"Expanding our collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim into cardiovascular disease is an important milestone for Variant Bio," said Andrew Farnum, CEO of Variant Bio. "Our Inference platform was built to do exactly this, to translate the richness of human genetic diversity into actionable drug targets at a speed and scale that simply wasn't possible before. Our global partnerships give us access to massive datasets other AI platforms don't have, enabling us to discover targets with strong human genetic evidence they simply can't find."

"Our work with Variant Bio has shown the potential of combining human genetics and advanced analytics with deep disease expertise," said Søren Tullin, Global Head of Cardiovascular-Renal-Metabolic Diseases Research at Boehringer Ingelheim. "By expanding our collaboration, we aim to identify genetically supported targets that could open new paths to first-in-class treatments for people living with cardiovascular disease."

At the heart of this collaboration is Variant Bio's Inference platform, which combines large language models, machine learning, and statistical genetics to interrogate hundreds of billions of data points, compressing the journey from genetic association to validated therapeutic hypothesis into a fraction of the time required by conventional approaches.

Under the terms of the expanded agreement, Variant Bio will receive an additional upfront payment and is eligible for potential license and milestone payments totaling over $250 million.

About Variant Bio

Variant Bio is developing life-saving therapies by studying the genes of people with exceptional health-related traits. By identifying communities with unique genetic architectures and outlier phenotypes, Variant Bio has identified novel human genetic evidence that is the basis for programs with breakthrough potential across multiple therapeutic areas. The company's research is powered by its proprietary Inference platform, which integrates across deep phenotyping and multi-omic data using AI/ML and statistical genetics approaches to identify and validate therapeutic targets. With ethics at its core, the company launched an unprecedented benefit-sharing program in 2020, in which it has pledged tangible benefits that directly impact the communities it partners with throughout the world. Follow Variant Bio's news and updates at www.variantbio.com and via its blog, on X/Twitter @VariantBio, on Instagram @variant_bio, and on LinkedIn.

SOURCE Variant Bio